Most Beautiful Lupita

PEOPLE Magazine’s Most Beautiful issue has been released. And who is the Most Beautiful of them all?

Lupita Nyong’o!

Could there be anyone else?

It’s been a good couple of days for Lupita. Sh-t, it’s been a great year for Lupita. Six weeks ago she won the Oscar. Six months ago she won us all. Yesterday it was confirmed that she’s signed with CAA. And now she’s covering PEOPLE. In typical, graceful Lupita style though, she wears her new crown with a lot of responsibility:

"It was exciting and just a major, major compliment. I was happy for all the girls who would see me on [it] and feel a little more seen."

Lupita once said that it was Alek Wek who helped her start believing that beauty wasn’t just “light skin and long, flowing, straight hair”. She tells PEOPLE that "Subconsciously you start to appreciate those things more than what you possess”. Wek’s profile gave her reason to begin to change her internal definition of beauty. Now she’s becoming that for a new generation of young men and women so that they can adjust the stock image of attractiveness in their minds. This time it’s more than just a popularity contest. This time it’s also a powerful message. We definitely need more of them. We might be able to achieve that if we loudly celebrate the ones that we have.